ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993                   TAG: 9307150007
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE AREA A STRONG JOB GENERATOR

Employment in business, health services and local government was especially strong in the Roanoke Valley in May.

The number of people working in the region rose 1.8 percent or 2,300 people, to 127,800, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Virginia Employment Commission.

The monthly figures were bolstered by temporary hiring at the Sears telecatalog Center to clear merchandise prior to closing. Those people were laid off the following month.

Factory employment was unchanged from the prior year, with losses in machinery offset by gains in furniture and nondurables, the VEC said.

Construction employment was 8.7 percent below last year's level.

The commission said the acquisition of Dominion Bankshares Corp. by First Union Corp. "has not had much impact on overall employment totals."

For the state as a whole, employment was up 0.4 percent to 2,867,500 people at work, the commission said.

That, however, was the weakest gain for any month so far in 1993, the agency said.

Tourist-related industries hired people extensively in April, but then added only a few in May.

The commission said May's reduced job growth could be a one-month statistical aberration, or it could signal the onset of the slow pace the nation has been experiencing all year.

"In the past two years," the commission said, "the Virginia economy seems to track about one quarter behind the U.S. economy."

The slower statewide job growth in May seemed to have little bearing on unemployment. The state jobless rate increased 0.3 percent from April's 29-month low of 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent in May.

That was a normal April-to-May rise in joblessness because of growth in the work force as college students entered the summer job market in large numbers.

Employment in Virginia metro areas\ \ May '93 May '92 Change\ Charlottesville 71,400 69,200 +3.2%\ Lynchburg 78,800 77,000 +2.3%\ Roanoke 127,800 125,500 +1.8%\ Norfolk area 591,600 588,700 +0.7%\ Richmond area 468,800 464,900 +0.8%\ Northern Va. area 768,600 763,700 +0.6%\ Danville 41,000 39,900 +0.2%\ Bristol 33,600 34,200 -1.8%\ STATE 2,867,500 2,855,200 +0.4%\ Source: Va. Employment Commission 


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